British chipmaker Ensilica becomes latest victim of Jaguar Land Rover cyberattack
British chipmaker Ensilica is thought to have become the latest supplier to Jaguar Land Rover to take a hit from the carmaker’s cyberattack, as the firm cut its supply expectations for the forthcoming year.
The Oxford-based business saw its shares tumble on Thursday after it revised down its revenue expectations to £28-30m for the year to the end of May, below market expectations of £33m.
“A recent cybersecurity issue within an automotive customer’s supply chain has occurred and while it is too early to fully assess the impact, the company has considered it prudent to be conservative and revise expectations for chip supply volumes required for this customer,” the firm said.
Ensilica has not formally named Jaguar Land Rover as a customer, though no other major carmaker has suffered a recent large-scale cyber attack that impacted its supply chain. The firm’s automotive contract is worth more than $30m over a seven year period.
Ensilica did not respond to a request for comment.
The company’s stock fell as much as 14 per cent to 39p on Thursday morning.
Jaguar Land Rover partially restarts production
Last week Jaguar Land Rover said manufacturing would soon partially restart, a month and a half after a crippling cyberattack forced the UK’s largest carmaker to halt its production line.
The restart is the first time the automaker has been able to carry out any production of new vehicles since the end of August; a standstill that insiders estimate will be costing Jaguar Land Rover £5m a day in lost revenue.
The carmaker also confirmed the number of cars sold to dealers, distributors, or importers fell 24.2 per cent year on year to 66,165 in the quarter, with retail sales dropping 17.1 per cent to 85,495.
Responding to a growing clamour for state support for the several layers of Jaguar Land Rover’s supply chain facing collapse, the government initially backed a £1.5bn commercial loan to try and stave off failures and job losses in the UK’s already struggling auto sector.
Suppliers and their industry bodies had warned the attack, the suspect of which has still not been revealed, had left them facing late payments and a dearth of new orders.
But with the government-backed scheme hitting roadblocks, Jaguar Land Rover also confirmed it had rolled out a separate financing scheme that it said would “provide qualifying suppliers with cash-up-front” as the restart phase got underway.
Under the scheme, which is believed to be in the realm of £500m, suppliers would be paid “much faster than under their standard payment terms”, in a move that will provide car part makers and similar businesses with much-needed solvency.